The new space race: how Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson brought space travel back from the brink - and plan to send us to Mars

Cold War rivals Russia and America spent the 50s, 60s and 70s battling it out for cosmic dominance. But when Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon's surface in 1969, the space race appeared to have been won.

The number of planned space flights decreased significantly from the beginning of the 1980s, hitting a nadir in the early 2000s and culminating in 2011, when the final Space Shuttle mission took place.

But 49 years after the first man on the moon, interest in colonising space is heating up. This time it isn't governments stepping up but some of the wealthiest individuals, who are keen to prove they have the biggest, most powerful rocket.

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy lifting off from the Kennedy Space Centre on TuesdayCredit:
Reuters

Tesla founder Elon Musk, British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and the world's richest man, Jeff Bezos, are the space exploration frontrunners, each plugging their own money into the space businesses with the goal of sending humans into...